The U.N. plan for what had been Britain's Palestine Mandate called for an international zone in Jerusalem, a city sacred to Christians and Muslims as well as Jews. But the 1948 fighting ended with Israel in control of the western part of the city and Jordan controlling the east.

Israel seized all of Jerusalem and the West Bank in the Six-Day War in 1967. While the Palestinian Authority calls for the capital of an independent Palestine in East Jerusalem, Israeli leaders say the city cannot be divided again.